The Iron Horde
by Marek C. James
Summary: Hi yall! This really was just a quick story I did for a contest, but It works as a great test model for my first fan fic! Please review.


Iron Reapers

**The Foraging**

Created from light, the Reapers rain blackness upon all living beings.

Alk-Haan, a loathsome little world, that in no bigger than a large moon, the perfect cover. Chaos Lord Varagol Malfoss, of the Iron Warriors, was vile and brutal creature. Malfoss mercilessly stormed the small villages of Alk-Haan without warning, leaving thousands of bodies of men, women, and children alike, in his wake. In one week, Alk-Hann was his.

Few villages surrendered, Varagol was gracious enough to grant the puny humans life as a slave. Their lives were to be short in the upcoming years. For days on end, Varagol forced them to build a vast fortress, impervious to any assault. And behind it's mighty walls, was a gargantuan, four sided obelisk, in which was marked with each symbol of the chaos gods. Years past, but alas, the Monastery was complete, and Varagol's plans were about to unfold.

Behind the back of Varagol's anarchy, a slave managed to send out a wide distress signal. The signal reached the fleets of The Inquisition, the Red Vanguard, and the might Ultramarine home world of Macragge. The three forces quickly gathered, and assaulted the small world. Luckily for the Iron Warriors, the befriended legion of the Shadow Stalkers was nearby, and warned the legion of the imminent attack.

Soon after, the mighty armies clashed in a battle that nearly shook the world of it's axis. Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned to months, months to years, and years to a decade. The war had effected the galaxy immensely, and word reached all the way out to the Vergon system, where sorcerer lord Ahriman of the Thousand Sons, where he was continuing his studies in the dark arts. He was so enthralled by the mass war being waged, on such a worthless planet. For his own amusement and curiosity, he lead a small fleet to the scene.

When he arrived a week later, he was stunned at the mass fire power that was laid down upon him by the Inquisition, Ahriman's fleet was soon crippled and he was forced to evacuate to the planet. The war was far worse, down there. The Red Vanguard had brought their signature war machine, _The Exterminator_, and the Iron Warriors were summoning Daemons left and right from the strange obelisk. The moment he saw it, Ahriman knew it's purpose. It was a god creator. Every galactic equinox, a knew god may be created, but such requires a vast amount of sacrifices. It took him a moment, but Ahriman realized that Malfoss had withdrawn all his troops, he was going to sacrifice two space marine chapters, a full chaos legion, and the Ordo Malleus! The thought of another god was dumbfounding, but impossible. No one as ignorant as Varagol would be powerful enough to create even a demigod. Out of personal amusement, Ahriman stayed to watch such an experiment fail.

As the sky turned red mere days later, the cultist surrounded the obelisk, and chanted the rituals words in the dark tongue. The one word Ahriman noticed they repeated, was _Khar'yleth. _Meaning Lord of the Mechanical Rage, this must have meant they were attempting to create a machine god. As the cultist chanted, the obelisk began glow, then levitate and rotate slowly, as it started glowing brighter. The granite daggerrose above the battle and was bright enough to be seen from hundreds of kilometers away.

Without notice, the shining rock exploded, raining small granite pebbles across the battlefield. The battle ceased, all watched in amazement as a shining blue serpent wiggled and squirmed where the obelisk was. Ahriman left, for he knew what the battling Astartes fates were.

The blue snake withered and wormed in mid-air, as if in excruciating pain. The serpent grew brighter, and brighter, until the blue daemon had turned to a glowing ball of white light. No one could move, for the light shone off by the entity was paralyzing. Pink electric volts surged through out it's victims causing intense pain and uncontrolled spasms through out their bodies.

The serpent soon exploded sending a shock wave across the surface of the planet, flashing over it's immobile victims. As the wave flowed over the marines with grace, their armour was turned black and their flesh was twisted and malformed, as the atoms in the skin rearranged and hardened, turning their once weak flesh into a machine.

All living organisms, plants, and even the calm seas and plains, were transformed into steel and machine. Nothing could hide nor escape the daemonic aura that swept the land. In mere minutes the once beautiful, and elegant forests and oceans of Alk-Hann, were flattened and completely transmuted into a lifeless sphere of iron.

The metallic zombies that now inhabit this world, are only kept alive by the bright pink electric volts, that circulate through their armour. The warped minds of the leaders still believe that the machine god exists, even though it's destruction made them what they are. The legion of steel believes that the Emperor is a reincarnation of the false god, and they are currently embarking on a from the long forgotten Haan system, to Terra, where they will attack the heart of the non-believing flesh beings, and will seize the Emperor and attach him to a Dreadnought they forged.

On their way, the soulless warriors will slaughter and transform all who stand in their path, or be killed in the process. As psyker Slaa'y once said:

"_The Imperial meat sacks best be ready, for a storm of iron, is approaching."_

**Burning Hatred**

Cleansing one life is joyous. but cleansing a thousand, is remarkable.

Even though these chaotic soldiers thought of the Emperor as a reincarnation of their god, they would never succeed in their crusade alone. The Iron Reaper's later obtained the help of Thousand Sons, the Death Guard, Warp Ghosts, and the Shadow Stalkers legions. Every planet in the iron reapers went to, they've proposed their quest. Few planets came to submission, all required force. But eventually, the Iron Reapers Legion was becoming more than a warband, it was a traveling nation. But all nations, have made their mistakes.

The first mistake, was the assault of an Imperial hive world. And within minimal time the Inquisition were aware that Alk-Haan was not a global genocide, but merely an evolution. After the hive world was brought to submission, the Ordo Malleus attacked. A week long space dogfight was unleashed in the Quovon sector. As the two forces raged on in battle, a nearby Tau investigations fleet was soon aware of the battle. Several small Tau cruisers set up a fortification battery on a small orbiting moon that passed by the battle.

The day immediately after completion, the Tau struck. Several large plasma blasts shrug the sides of both Imperial, and chaotic fleets. Inquisition was badly cripple and were forced to treat the system. The iron reapers ore simultaneously injured, but instead in their warp drives. They had no way to leave this system without being detected.

Luckily for the Reapers, the befriended war band of the Shadow Stalkers was nearby. Master of the Iron Reapers fleet, John Claude Stryker, alerted the passing warband. Lord Cyephis, could not pass up the challenge. The Chaos Lord had the fleet reach change direction, and send Nice beer tape down like the funking first to the moon.


End file.
